The line-up for the 11th Annual Squeaky Wheel Animation Fest has been announced. The free family-friendly outdoor screening festival is a real hoot for anyone who appreciates a wide breadth of artist creations. From animations dreamed up by students in the TechArts for Youth workshops, to local pros (including directors and staff at Squeaky Wheel), the varying methods and the playful mayhem will keep animation buffs glued to the edges of their seats.
11th Annual Squeaky Wheel Animation Fest
Date: Tuesday, August 5 at 8:30pm
Location: Canalside (44 Prime St., Buffalo NY)
Bring: Chairs and blankets – Adirondack chairs available for first 100 guests
About the Animations
The Wind by Robert Lobel (lead image)
The Wind is an animated short about the daily life of people living in a windy area who seem helplessly exposed to the weather. However, the inhabitants have learned to deal with their difficult living conditions. The wind creates a natural system for living.
Musical Recordings From the Realm of the Dead by Troy Morgan
Four separate individuals at the dawn of wireless technology unknowingly become accidental collaborators of a musical composition that is pieced together through radio waves.
A Colour Box by Len Lye
This 1935 film was made by painting vibrant abstract patterns directly onto film and synchronizing them to a popular dance tune by Don Baretto and His Cuban Orchestra. A panel of animation experts convened in 2005 by the Annecy film festival put this film among the top ten most significant works in the history of animation.
Down Into Nothing by Jake Fried
Don’t blink as this short animation—hand-drawn with ink, gouache, white-out and coffee—continuously morphs into images that appear to spring from the depths of someone’s psyche.
A Joy by Jodie Mack
A collaboration with world famous experimental musician Four Tet for his 2005 album Everything Ecstatic. Direct animation with stained-glass contact paper, ink, and acetate.
Anaelle by Stefan Gruber
This animation follows Gruber’s account of a magical encounter involving resurrecting drowned ladybugs. Hand drawn, digitally transferred, finished as a 35mm film print.
Why Do I Study Physics? by Xiangjun Shi
How can we live with a world which seems to display a “schizophrenic character”, torn between the elegance of physics and the irregularity and randomness of nature? In this short animation Xiangjun Shi talks about her inspiration to study physics and describes how, through its lens, the world seems beautiful.
Billy Collins Action Poetry
Who doesn’t love Billy Collins, the former US Poet Laureate? The actor Bill Murray reads his poetry at construction sites. Adorable toddlers recite his poetry from memory. And now artists have created animated videos that bring Collins’ poems to life. This is Billy Collins Action Poetry.
Budapest by Julian Grey/Head Gear
Forgetfulness by Julian Grey/Head Gear
The Country by Brady Baltezor/Radium
Noise by Kijek/Adamski
A film inspired by the theoretic work of George Berkeley and basics of synesthetic perception. It’s a game of imagination provoked by sound. Individual sounds penetrating into the apartment of the main character relieved of their visual designates evoke images distant from its origins.
Give Me Pie by Gina Kamentsky
Peg leg man dreams of a burlesque queen. There are crash tests, several dogs and a pie.
My Mother’s Coat by Moth
Mother talks to me about post-dictatorship Athens, her struggle to adapt to the greek mentality, her memories of motherhood, and her longing to go back to her small town in Italy.
Arithmetic by Laurie O’Brien
An adaptation of In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan with puppetry, paper cutout animation, found sound, and homemade instruments.
Everything You Need to Know About Dinosaurs by Dan Fitzgerald
An educational animation about dinosaurs.
Strange Wonderful by Stephanie Swart
Little monster goes to school that day. She thinks, “They probably call me snail face when I’m not around.” Sometimes she gets lonely but she can be happy too.
Heroes by Julia Ziaja (Age 14)
Created during a recent Cut-Out Animation workshop in our TechArts for Youth series. During this workshop students explored the idea of “Heroes,” and expressed stories of what heroes represent to them.
Disco Turtle by Quinn Kennedy (Age 11)
This animation examines the detrimental effects of bullying and the healing powers of acceptance, featuring narration by Cher. Created during a recent Cut-Out Animation workshop in our TechArts for Youth series.